Monday, January 12, 2015

January 12, 2015

“A pessimist sees the
difficulty in every opportunity;
an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
~Winston S. Churchill

“We cannot change the
cards we are dealt,
just how we play the hand.”
~Randy Pausch

I finished the Book of Mormon here in 5 weeks! What a perfect
book! What a perfect week!

Monday= we spent
cleaning the house that the sisters will be moving into. We also split the
areas again, and the sisters will be taking the bulk of our investigators. They
are taking everything from the meadows of Irwin towards Lucea. It will be great
for the branch though to have sisters and they just bring a special spirit to
the work! One of them is named sister Wilkinson. I think President Brown was
sick of mixing up our names so he banished us to this side of the island! Haha.
But the other 2 coming in as well are power house missionaries!

Tuesday we did a split
with Elders Kuehn and Laffyette in their area to help them build up a teaching
pool since they are in a new area. It went really well. We did lots of
contacting and talked to some very successful people. It was good to just boost
everyone’s faith and have some fun. I went with Elder Laffyette. One of the
more cool stories was we stopped to talk with these gentlemen...moments in we
find out some are taking meth. But minor details, it’s quite common... but we
get talking to them and this one guy is trying to shut me down... and I never
have felt like the spirit had given me the answers as fast as they came at that
moment, I felt like Elder Holland for a minute. And eventually this guy just
eases off and says " I believe you. Ya, I believe you. You know true Christians
don’t judge and run off just cuz we smoke. Respect, I want to learn about your
church" and puts out his spliff and the other guys do too. I don’t know
where they will go, but just another faith building experience. They come in
all shapes and forms!

Wednesday= we traveled
to district meeting in Sav to meet the Sav and Negril elders there. It was a
great meeting, mostly about comp unity, and then we went to a dentist
appointment for Elder Henderson afterwards. I am scared to find out what has
happened to my mouth after the mission, even though I have no problems now. I
feel like it is a gift of the spirit, to not feel pain.. haha! We had some good
lessons that night, one of which was with Natanya’s sister. She had studied out
the plan of salvation pamphlet and loved it, too bad the sisters get her now as
well. Haha, oh well, one work this!!!

Thursday= since we moved
the elders in with us, we had to paint their old apartment for the 3 sisters
coming in. Took about 6 hours, but looked great of course!! At night we
did quite a bit of contacting in Ironshore (our area) a part we haven’t spent much
time in! One guy we talked to walked out and said he had to go look for his
other 3 wives... ha, not funny, I caught him in his joke. But he was interested
to learn for some reason. People are funny.

We also got to meet with
2 other potentials in... you guessed it, the sister’s area. They are great! One
named Nadeen and one named Mack. Both very interested in the gospel. One drives
taxi and the other cleans cars, haha.

Friday= Friday was a
shock! Michelle had read like 10 chapters in the Book of Mormon! and retained
it all! Very cool. Just got some minor things to work on with the family, but
wants to come to church. She is in our area, haha! We also got introduced to a
man named Kevin by Pres. Allen. He is 27 and is an accountant, but has a
terrible smoking addiction. We have been working close with him, and he’s
making some progress. President gave him a blessing.. it was just really cool
for me to see how much members care about their friends and helping them. I
look forward to doing that with some friends back home! We all should -this
restored gospel is the only way for happiness in this life and the
eternities!

Saturday= service for
Sister Brown moving chalkstone... boy, I’m sore. New Year’s resolution.. get
back in shape. It’s not going well. We did like 30 an hour and was dead!!!Bbut
soon finish it!

We also got to go see a
recent convert who lives by a less active that is quite frankly against the
church. The other elders said they were quite rude in their conversation. Different
story when we went. Elder Henderson is a powerful missionary and the spirit is
sooo cool! Tender mercies and blessings seen make you want to work that much
harder to guarantee that spirit will be there to back you up!! The
ones that are rude just walked out cuz of what they felt and the recent convert
we got to talk about missionary service more seriously, good experience for all
I think.

Sunday= church was great.
Kevin came and is working towards 22 Feb baptism. We went and saw Michelle
again with Tyrone, Sis. Chensang, and Bro Sterling. Then we went to see Patricia's
boy, Karby. He is a strong Rasta, but nothing caught his attention more than we
are a non-paid ministry. we was very interested in the Book of Mormon. We had
some deep talks, but I think more than anything it was cool to see like a
flicker in Pat again, that maybe this might be something amazing if Rasta man
is convinced!! Very cool.

We were dropping people
back at home and saw the elders heading to a recent convert’s house. so we
thought we would prank them and say we told them we would teach Jennifer
today... they acted confused, but did see the truck and blocked our tires. They
left a note on the windshield. It basically said the wiggers will never win! Well
we had a spare padlock so we changed it before we went up to see Kevin and
wrote them a rap in a chastity pamphlet and taped it to the door. Coincidence
again, we saw them heading home after Kevin’s and took a back road home and
parked at the neighbors one road up and watched them find out they got pranked!
Haha, missions are fun, lots of hard work, but fun as thrilling and spiritual
uplifting as well.

Well, I love you all
once more. Keep up the good work, remember to add God in your setting of goals
and making plans, and account to him daily. He is diligently involved in what
we can become. Bless up and nuff love!